Tax-Base-Sharing Plan Nears Approval in Michigan

By Lonnie Harp

Michigan lawmakers last week were poised to pass a bill that would provide low-wealth school districts with a share of the new tax revenues produced by economic growth in other parts of the state.

Proponents hail the measure as a step toward reducing school-funding disparities and resolving the state's long-running deadlock over finance-equity issues.

The House has already agreed to the tax-base-sharing plan, and recent backing from Gov. John M. Engler was expected to clear the way for the bill in the Senate, which was scheduled to...